PESHAWAR, May 16: NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani has urged donor agencies to extend practical help for mother and child healthcare instead of holding workshops. Reiterating that the MMA government was committed to providing care to the mother and child, he said: “We want donor organisations to develop rural health centres to eliminate factors leading to maternal mortality,” he said.

The chief minister was speaking at the inaugural session of a two-day workshop held jointly by the department of health and Unicef to seek suggestions on a plan to improve mother and child health at the provincial level.

Mr Durrani said the government would provide protection to donor agencies to ensure smooth implementation of their plans to improve the health delivery system.

According to him, health professionals were reluctant to go to far-off rural areas where people needed them.

He also criticised the use of limousines by officials of different projects, and urged the donor organisations to pay heed to the peoples’ problems in rural areas.

“We accord top priority to health and education sector, because we believe that the people needed improved services in these areas,” he said.

Federal Secretary for mother and child health Shaheen Masood painted a bleak picture of mother and child health in the country. She said of the 100,000, 350 women died due to pregnancy-related complications. A mother died in Pakistan due to similar problem, she added.

She said high maternal, neonatal and child mortality were attributed to high fertility rates, inadequate access to quality maternal and child healthcare services, low-skilled birth attendant rate, inadequate emergency obstetric and newborn care, low female literacy, poverty, malnutrition and heavy burden of communicable diseases.

She disclosed that Rs31.5billion would be spent over a period of 10 years to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) relating to improvement in the mother and child health.

She was of the view that contraceptive prevalence rate would be enhanced from 34 to 55 per cent by 2010, whereas the attendance of deliveries by trained birth attendants be increased from 24 to 90 per cent over this period.

Immunisation rate be increased to 90 per cent, she said, adding that according to the plan, most of the maternal deaths could be avoided by ensuring availability of emergency obstetric care services, especially in the rural areas.

Apart from the government’s resources, she said that donors are welcomed to assist the plan.

Health minister Inayatullah Khan was of the view that the provincial government had raised the annual development plan (ADP) from Rs300million to Rs12,00 millions, which indicated the government’s commitment towards the improvement of the health delivery network.

Still, we need to strengthen the mother and child health facilities, especially in the nine backward districts of the province, where the situation is extremely bad.